Doggy Maxi10 Grooms

On a big dog, the de-shed is what you're buying. Everything else in the groom matters, but a German Shepherd, a Husky, a Golden Retriever or a Rottweiler in double coat produces a volume of loose undercoat that no amount of brushing at home genuinely keeps up with — and a proper de-shed pulls out handfuls of it in one session.

The difference shows up in your house rather than on the dog. Less hair on the sofa, less in the car, less circulating through the air in a Paarl spring when the winter coat comes out all at once. Owners who've had it done properly once tend not to go back to managing it themselves.

Ten grooms across a year is about one every five weeks, which is a sensible rhythm for a heavy-coated big dog — tightening naturally in spring and autumn when the coat turns over, and easing off in between.

A big dog is also where the rest of the groom earns its keep. Nails on a thirty-five-kilogram dog get hard to cut once they're overgrown, and overgrown nails change how a dog stands and loads its joints. Ears on a drop-eared breed need doing regularly. Glands are the thing nobody wants to think about and everybody notices when they've been left.

Ten is the single-dog pack. Two big dogs in the house and the twenty is the better fit — it gives each of them a groom a month, which through a shedding season you'll want.

R450 a groom, ten of them, with 5% back.

Before we come

The package covers your household, not one dog. Two dogs, three dogs — draw on the same pot for all of them. Tell us which dogs it's for when you book and we'll keep separate notes for each: what clip, what shampoo, what they object to, what your vet has said. From the second groom onwards that makes a real difference. Book the sessions as you need them. A package isn't a schedule, it's a pot of grooms to draw on. Most owners settle into a rhythm after the first two or three; if you'd rather we just remind you when one's about due, say so and we will. Tell us what you want each time, and expect it to change. "Trim and/or shave" means the decision is yours session by session — shorter for December, left longer through winter, tidy for a wedding. A package doesn't lock you into one look. Tell us how she is about being handled, honestly. Nail trims, ear cleaning and anal glands are the parts dogs object to most, and a dog who's had a bad experience somewhere else will tell us by objecting early. That's useful information, not a problem — but we'd rather know before than discover it. Anything your vet has flagged, we need to know: skin conditions, allergies, arthritis, a heart murmur, a healing wound, or her age if she's elderly. Older dogs tire faster and we work shorter and gentler. A groom is not a health check, but it's often where something gets noticed. Working over a whole dog with hands and clippers, we sometimes find lumps, sore patches, ear infections or fleas before an owner does. We'll always tell you. We won't ever diagnose it — that's your vet's job. Between grooms, brushing is the thing that matters. Five minutes a few times a week on a long or double coat prevents most of the matting we'd otherwise have to cut out. Never let anyone shave a double coat down for summer. It's a common request and it does the opposite of what people hope — the coat insulates against heat as well as cold, and it often grows back patchy or with a changed texture. The de-shed is the right answer for a hot Paarl December, not the clippers. If your dog is a Husky, Shepherd, Retriever or Collie type, we'll say no to a shave-down and explain why. A big dog takes longer. Allow more time than you would for a small one, and expect us to work in stages if she's elderly or arthritic. Spring and autumn will use more sessions. The coat turns over twice a year, and you may want two grooms three weeks apart when it does. Plan the ten with that in mind rather than spacing them evenly.